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Stack 
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From   an    emblazoned   copy   made   in    Geneva 
by   Miss   Sarah    Diodale   Gardiner, 
s.    Notes    lO  and    IS. 


MR.  WILLIAM  DIODATE 

(Of  New  Haven  from  ijij  to  1751 ) 


HIS  ITALIAN  ANCESTRY, 


READ    BEFORE   THE 


||euj   focen  |olong    Aisiorical   Jorietg, 


June  28,  1875, 


EDWARD    E.   SALISBURY. 


Taken  from  the  Society's  Archives,  by  permission,  for  private  circulation, 
and  printed,  after  revision,  in  April.  1870. 


mPLiCATj 


Printed  by  Tuttlb,  Morehouse  &  Taylor. 


Mr.   WILLIAM    DIODATE 


HIS   ITALIAN   ANCESTRY. 


When,  in  the  year  1821,  it  had  been  decided  to  oblit- 
erate from  the  Public  Square  all  traces  of  the  ancient 
burial-ground  of  New  Haven,  among  the  monuments 
removed  to  the  Cemetery  on  Grove  street,  which  had 
been  in  use  since  1796,  were  those,  as  a  cotemporaneous 
document'  informs  us,  of  Mr.  William  Diodate  and  his 
relict  Sarah.  Had  this  Society  then  existed,  it  is  hardly 
to  be  doubted  that  the  antiquarian  spirit  would  have 
jealoush'  guarded  the  old  enclosure  as  a  perpetual  monu- 
ment to  the  fathers  of  New  Haven  ;  in  which  case  the 
grave  of  William  Diodate  would  not  have  been,  as  it  now 
is,  an  unmarked  spot  beneath  the  sod  ;  and  his  descend- 
ants of  the  present  generation  would  have  had  a  locality 
about  which  to  gather  a  long  line  of  associations  with  the 
past,  lately  brought  to  light,  of  great  interest  to  them- 
selves, and  not  unworthy,  it  is  thought,  to  be  added  to 
the  mass  of  early  New  England  familj^-histor}-,  now  being 
accumulated  for  public  as  well  as  private  ends.  To  pre- 
serve the  memory  of  these  interesting  facts,  now  to  be 
connected  with  this  name,  hitherto  undistinguished — car- 
rying us  back,  through  England  and  Switzerland,  to  the 
Italy  of  the  Middle  Ages — the  following  paper  has  been 
prepared. 


Stack 
Annex 


8( 


202642! 


Mr.  William  Diodate  and  his  Italian  Ancestry.  4 

It  will  be  proper,  especially  before  this  Society,  to 
begin  with  bringing  together  a  few  items  from  New 
Haven  records,  respecting  William  Diodate  himself,  for 
which  we  are  indebted  to  the  researches  of  our  honored 
associate  Henry  White.  The  first  notice  of  William 
Diodate,  in  our  town-records,  is  in  1717,  when  a  deed  ot 
land  to  him,  dated  April  23,  1717,  is  recorded.  On  the 
4th  of  March,  1719-20,  he  purchased  half  an  acre  on  the 
corner  of  Elm  and  Church  streets,  where  "the  blue 
meeting  house  "  afterwards  stood — which  he  sold  Jan.  7, 
1720-1.  He  was  married  Feb.  16,  1720-1,  to  Sarah 
Dunbar,  daughter  of  John  Dunbar  of  New  Haven,  b}- 
his  first  wife,  whose  name  is  unknown  ;  and  in  the  month 
of  May  following  he  purchased  his  home-lot,  on  State 
street,  on  the  south-west  corner  of  what  is  now  Court 
street,  containing  \\  acre,  with  a  house  and  a  small  barn 
on  it,  for  ^100.  In  1728-9,  Feb.  24,  he  purchased  a  vacant 
lot  adjoining,  next  south,  containing  if  acre  for  £'j^  ;  and 
about  the  year  1735  several  tracts  of  outlands  were  added 
to  his  real  estate.  His  will,  dated  May  26,  1747,  with  a 
codicil  dated  March  9,  1748-9,  was  proved  on  the  13th  of 
May,  1751,  in  which  year,  therefore,  he  probably  died; 
for,  though  the  grave-stone  of  his  "  relict  "  Sarah,  who 
survived  him  several  years,  still  exists,'  his  own  has  not 
been  found,  so  that  the  exact  date  of  his  death  is  not 
ascertained.  So  much  as  an  outline  of  what  the  town- 
records  tell  us  with  regard  to  our  subject  From  the 
records  of  the  First  Church  of  New  Haven  we  also  learn 
that  he  made  profession  of  his  Christian  faith  on  the  20th 
of  March,  1735,  under  the  ministry  of  Rev.  Joseph  Noyes  ; 
and  that  his  wife  had  joined  the  same  church  more  than 
twenty  years  before,  on  the  i6th  of  April,  1713,  several 
years  before  her  marriage  ;   a  tankard  which,  till  within  a 


Mr.  U'il/iaiii  Diodate  and  Ids  Italian  Ancestry.  5 

short  time,  made  part  of  the  communion-service  of  plate 
owned  by  the  First  Church,  was  her  gift,  and  bore  her 
name.'  The  preamble  to  William  Diodate's  will  gives  fur- 
ther indication  of  his  religious  character  in  these  words, 
which  can  scarcely  be  regarded  as  merely  conventional : 
"In  the  name  of  God,  Amen:  I,  William  Diodate  of 
New  Haven  Town  and  County  and  Colony  of  Connect- 
icut in  New  England,  do  make,  ordain  and  constitute 
this  m}'  last  Will  and  Testament:  and  first  of  all  I  give 
and  recommend  my  soul  to  God  who  gave  it,  hoping 
for  pardon  and  acceptance  thro'  Jesus  Christ,  my  only 
Saviour,  and  my  body  to  y«  earth  by  decent  Chris- 
tian burial,  at  the  discretion  of  my  executor  hereinafter 
named,  hoping  for  a  glorious  resurrection  of  the  same 
at  the  last  day  b}-  the  mighty  power  of  God."  We 
notice,  also,  that,  for  the  possible  event  of  a  failure  of 
heirs  born  to  his  daughter,  his  only  child,  or  to  her 
husband,  the  testator  directs  that,  after  the  death  of  his 
wife,  his  real  estate  shall  be  divided  equally  between 
the  First  Church  in  New  Haven  and  the  First  Church 
in  Lyme. 

Another  item  of  interest  in  this  will  and  the  inventory 
connected  with  it,  is  the  following  :  "  Item — all  such  books 
as  I  shall  die  possessed  off,  which  shall  have  the  following 
Lattin  words  wrote  in  them  with  my  own  hand- writing, 
viz:  'Usque  quo,  Domine,'  I  give  and  devise  unto  my 
said  son-in-law  Mr.  Stephen  Johnson,  to  use  and  improve 
during  his  natural  life,  and  at  his  death  I  give  and  devise 
y«  same  to  my  grandson  Diodate  Johnson,  to  be  at  his 
dispose  forever."  Seventy -six  volumes,  mostly  theologi- 
cal works,  were  thus  bequeathed,  valued  at  .^20.6.7 — 
certainl)',  in  themselves,  a  remarkable  collection  of  books 
for  that  time,    fitted  to  awaken   curiositv   respecting   its 


Mr.  William  Diodate  ajid  Ins  Italian  Ancestry.  6 

possible  origin  ;  and  this  the  more  when  one  notices,  by 
the  inventory,  that  among  these  volumes  were  "  Mr. 
Diodate's  Annotations,"  and  "  Le  Mercier's  History  of 
Geneva."*  Could  it  be,  one  might  ask,  that  the  author  of 
those  Annotations,  the  celebrated  divine  of  Geneva,  of 
the  time  of  the  Refoijmation,  was  a  relative  of  our  New 
Haven  testator  of  the  same  name?  and  did  William 
Diodate,  one  might  further  inquire,  make  an  heirloom  of 
his  library,  as  the  words  of  his  will  imply,  not  only  on 
account  of  its  being  so  rarely  large  for  a  hundred  and 
twenty-five  years  ago,  but  also  on  account  of  family-asso- 
ciations with  it,  perhaps  as  having  come  down  to  himself, 
in  part  at  least,  from  that  learned  divine?  and  was  the 
significant  motto,  written  by  him  in  each  volume,  a  me- 
morial of  those  times  of  conflict  and  peril  in  which  the 
theologian  Diodati  of  Geneva  had  lived,  and  patiently 
wrought  out  his  life-work,  there  under  the  shadow  of  the 
icy  Mt.  Blanc,  shut  out  from  the  sunny  land  of  Italian 
forefathers?  An  affirmative  answer  to  the  first  of  these 
inquiries,  which  suggested  itself,  indeed,  some  time  since, 
to  one  of  the  descendants  of  our  William  Diodate,  but 
which  we  are  now  first  able  to  make  on  satisfactory 
grounds,  almost  inevitably  leads  to  the  same  reply  to  all 
of  them. 

The  inventory  of  William  Diodate  also  shows,  as  having 
belonged  to  his  estate,  a  considerable  amount  of  gold  and 
silver  coin,  or  bonds  and  notes  for  the  same,  besides  sil- 
ver-plate ;  which  accords  with  what  we  otherwise  know, 
bv  tradition,  that  he  dealt  in  coin  and  plate,  as  at  once 
a  banker  and  broker,  and  a  trader  in  the  various  articles 
of  orold  and  silver  which  were  in  use  at  the  time.  Not 
improbably,  therefore,  the  communion-tankard,  marked 
with  his  wife's  name,  came  from  his  own  establishment. 


Mr.  Williain  Diodate  and  his  Italian  Ancestry.  7 

Familv-tradition  says  that  he  had  "the  first  store  in  New 
Haven  " — whatever  that  may  mean,  as  applied  to  the 
early  part  ol  the  i8th  century. 

It  is  to  be  noticed,  further,  that  his  residence  in  the 
colony  of  Connecticut  must  have  dated  from  a  yet  earlier 
period  than  that  of  the  first  appearance  of  his  name  on  the 
town-records  of  New  Haven  ;  for  a  copy  of  Dr.  Diodati's 
Annotations,  presented  to  the  Collegiate  School  at  Say- 
brook  in  171 5,  was  his  gift:  possibly,  he  may  have  been 
drawn  to  New  Haven  by  a  hereditary  appreciation  of 
academic  learning,  as  well  as  by  the  new  business-life 
growing  out  of  the  first  establishment  of  the  college 
here  ;  the  very  year  in  which  he  is  first  heard  of  in  New 
Haven  was  that  of  the  removal  of  the  Collegiate  School 
from  Saybrook,  and  its  beginning  here,  to  be  known— 
from   the  next  year  onward — as  Yale  College. 

Crossing,  now,  to  the  shores  of  England,  whither  the 
personal  history  of  this  old  New  Havener  carries  us,  we 
take  with  us,  as  our  chief  thread  of  connection,  some  re- 
cords, still  existing  in  a  Bible  which  belonged  to  William 
Diodate  in  the  year  1728,  in  his  own  hand-writing,  which 
inform  us  that  his  father's  name  was  John,  and  his  mother 
the  eldest  daughter  of  John  Morton,  Esq.,  by  Elizabeth, 
only  child  of  John  Wicker,  and  the  widow  of  Alderman 
Cranne  (as  we  read)  of  London  ;  and  that  he  had  a  brother 
John,  older  than  himself,  and  a  sister  Elizabeth."  In 
addition  to  these  records,  we  have  the  accepted  family- 
tradition  that,  after  having  been  in  America  for  some 
years,  without  communication  with  his  relatives  in  the 
old  countr}',  he  at  length  went  back,  and  found  his  father 
and  brother  had  died,  and  that  he  himself  had  been 
supposed  to  be  dead,  so  that  his  claims  to  property,  as 
a    member  of    the   family,    were    set    aside;     whereupon 


Mr.   WilliiiDi  Diodate  and  his  Italian  Ancestry.  8 

he  accepted  from  his  sister,  by  way  of  compromise,  an 
offer  "  to  supply  his  store  in  New  Haven  with  goods 
as  long  as  she  lived,"  which  she  did,  not  only  during 
his  lifetime,  but  afterwards,  while  his  widow  lived,  who 
continued  the  business;  and  we  also  have  the  will  of 
the  sister,  under  her  married  name  of  Elizabeth  Scarlett, 
dated  Feb.  23,  1768,  in  which  the  principal  bequests  are 
to  the  daughter  of  her  deceased  brother  in  New  England 
and  her  children.  These  materials  for  tracing  the  ances- 
try of  our  subject  were  put,  last  year,  into  the  hands  of 
the  distinguished  American  antiquary  Col.  Joseph  L. 
Chester,  long  resident  in  London;  who  received  them 
with  interest,  and  added  to  them  others,  of  great  value, 
from  wills  and  letters  of  administration  recorded  in  Doc- 
tors' Commons,  and  from  the  records  of  several  London 
Parishes,  etc. 

Meanwhile,  recourse  was  had,  also,  to  a  branch  of  the 
Diodati  family  still  residing  in  Geneva,  through  the  kind 
intervention  of  Rev.  Leonard  W.  Bacon,  now  for  some 
time  a  sojourner  in  that  city — which  led  to  the  discovery 
of  a  large  mass  of  most  interesting  family-papers,  distinctly 
showing  the  Diodatis  to  have  been  an  old  Italian  family, 
tracing  back  their  history  to  Lucca,  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  marking  the  race  as  one  of  high  rank,  in  all  its  gen- 
erations, with  so  man}-  individual  names  of  distinction 
belonging  to  it  as  have  rarely  appertained  to  a  single 
family  ;  preserving,  too,  in  honor,  the  memory  of  an  Eng- 
lish offset,  though  without  knowledge  of  the  American 
branch.  We  owe  the  privilege  of  using  these  papers 
chiefly  to  Mr.  Gabriel  C.  Diodati  of  Geneva,  who  has 
most  courteously  met  and  furthered  the  inquiries  of  our 
friend  Mr.  Bacon,  besides  assisting  us  otherwise.  This 
friend    has  also  sent  us  a   Life  of  John   Diodati  (Vie  de 


Mr.  William  Diodatc  and  his  Italian  Ancestry.  g 

Jean  Diodati,  Th^ologien  G^nevois,  1 576-1649)  by  E.  de 
Bude,  Lausanne,  1869— from  which  we  have  derived 
further  aid  in  tracing  William  Diodate's  descent.  We 
have  drawn,  also,  from  a  Dutch  monograph:  Jean  Dio- 
dati, door  Dr.  G.  D.  J.  Schotel,  's  Gravenhage,  1844,  to 
which  De  Bude  refers  for  details,  which  is,  evidentl)-,  the 
basis  of  his  own  publication,  and  for  which  the  author 
had  the  use  of  family-papers.  David  L.  Gardiner,  Esq., 
connected  with  the  Diodati  family  by  marriage,  who  just 
now  resides  in  Geneva,  has  also  aided  our  investigations. 
Our  information  from  all  sources  harmonizes  so  satis- 
factorily that  no  essential  fact  would  seem  to  be  wanting. 
But  the  settlement  of  the  nearer  ancestry  of  our  subject 
is  mainly  due  to  a  happy  combination  suggested  by  Col. 
Chester. 


The  most  ancient  records  of  the  Diodatistell  us  that  the 
first  of  their  race  who  settled  in  Lucca,  Comelio  by  name, 
came  there  from  Coreglia  in  the  year  1300.°  Whether  he 
came  as  a  nobleman,  or,  according  to  the  middle-age  con- 
ception of  nobility,  as  a  landed  proprietor,  to  throw  the 
weight  of  his  influence  on  that  side,  in  the  great  strife  for 
power  in  the  Italian  cities,  between  those  who  held  the 
soil  and  those  whose  claims  to  consideration  were  based 
only  on  the  possession  of  wealth  acquired  by  commerce,  we 
are  not  informed.  But,  inasmuch  as  within  the  last  twenty 
years  of  the  13th  century,  according  to  Sismondi,"  that 
strife  for  power  had  ended  with  the  absolute  e.xclusion  of 
the  nobility  from  all  control  in  the  republics  of  Italy  ;  and 
as  we  find  the  representative  of  the  fourth  generation  ot 
Diodatis  in  Lucca,  named  Michele,  to  have  been  an  An- 
cient, four  times  Gonfalonier,  and  a  Decemvir  in  1370  (the 


J/r.  IVil/iain  Diodate  ami  his  Italian  Ancestry.  lo 

very  year  of  a  revival  of  popular  liberty  in  Lucca,  after 
fifty-six  years  of  servitude  through  the  prevalence  of  the 
Ghibelline  party),  while  his  father,  Alessandro,  seems  to  be 
remembered  only  as  a  physician — the  probability  is  that 
what  led  to  the  original  settlement  of  the  family  in 
Lucca  was  no  ambition  to  assert  prescriptive  right,  but 
rather  that  new  sense  of  widening  opportunity  for  the 
improvement  of  one's  condition  and  culture,  which  then 
animated  Italian  city-life,  and  was  destined,  under  the 
favoring  circumstances  of  the  age,  to  bring  upon  the 
theatre  of  history  all  those  names  which  have  added 
most  to  the  glory  of  Ital}-  in  art  and  learning. 

The  year  1300,  indeed,  is  memorable  not  only  as  mark- 
ing an  important  political  and  social  crisis,  but  as  a  note- 
worthy epcjch  in  the  history  of  Italian  architecture, 
painting  and  poetry.  From  1294  to  1300,  the  year  in 
which  he  died,  Arnolfo  was  directing  the  construction  ot 
the  Santa  Maria  del  Fiore,  the  cathedral-church  of  Flor- 
ence, of  which  the  dome  was  afterwards  completed  by 
Brunelleschi  ;  about  the  year  1300,  Andrea  Pisano  was  at 
work  on  his  gates  of  the  Baptistery  of  Pisa;  Giotto,  too, 
was  passing  from  his  shepherd-life,  to  carry  into  the  art  of 
painting  a  new  inspiration  derived  from  converse  with 
simple  nature  ;  and  that  same  year  was  the  time  when 
Dante  imagined  himself  to  have  voyaged  through  the 
regions  of  the  dead,  transferring  thither  friendships  and 
affections,  but  more  often  enmities  and  bitter  judgments, 
of  earth,  in  his  impassioned,  soul-stirring  descriptions  of 
purifying  pains,  or  hopeless  agonies,  or  seraphic  bliss,  of 
the  departed.  Evidently,  the  age  was  pre-eminent  for  in- 
tellectual movement;  and  it  is  not  a  little  interesting  to 
associate  with  this  movement,  as  we  so  naturall}-  may,  the 
coming  in  ot    our  Diodatis  to  take  part  in  the   city-life 


Mr.  Wiiliam  Diodate  and  his  Italian  Ancestry.  ii 

of  Lucca,  who  were,  in  generations  to  come,  not  only  there 
but  in  foreign  lands,  to  prove  themselves  an  eminently 
stirring  race,  by  public  services,  literary,  professional, 
civil,  militar}-,  and  diplomatic,  in  eminent  positions  in 
State  and  Church,  almost  always  on  the  side  of  liberty 
and  truth. 

Passing  over  the  son  of  the  Decemvir  of  1370,  Dr. 
Xicolo  Diodati,  who  died  in  1442.  we  come  to  a  genera- 
tion of  fifteen  children  of  his,  by  marriage  with  Francesca 
di  Poggio,  among  whom  the  third  b}'  birth,  named 
Michele,  born  in  1410,  who  married  Caterina  Buonvisi, 
was  a  professor  in  Padua  and  Pisa — probably  of  medicine 
— and  afterwards  a  physician  in  Lucca,  where  he  was 
pensioned  on  300  livres  by  the  city  ;  and  another,  Antonio, 
born  in  1416,  held  the  office  of  Ancient,  and  was  Gonfalo- 
nier in  1461.  Whether  it  was  by  influences  favorable  to 
liberty,  or  adverse,  that  these  members  of  the  family  were 
thus  distinguished,  cannot  be  certainly  told  ;  we  know, 
however,  that  for  about  thirty  years,  in  the  beginning 
of  the  15th  centur}-,  Lucca  was  under  a  usurper,  Paolo 
Guinigi ;  and  the  republics  of  Italy,  in  general,  during 
that  centurv,  were  becoming  more  and  more  aristocratic 
in  spirit,  from  the  fact  that  citizenship  in  them,  not  being 
a  gift  to  be  bestowed  upon  new  comers,  was  handed  down 
as  a  privilege  belonging  to  certain  families  ;  while  official 
position  must  of  course  have  become,  still  more,  the  pre- 
rogative of  a  favored  class.' 

The  race  seems  to  have  been  continued  only  through 
Alessandro,  son  of  the  Professor  Michele,  born  in  1459  • 
his  son  Geronimo,  born  in  1465,  who  was  an  eminent 
literary  man,  and  nine  times  Ancient,  having  died  child- 
less, and  no  descendants  of  his  third  son,  Antonio,  who 
was   three   times   Ancient   and    four   times    Gonfalonier, 


Mr.  William  Diodate  and  his  Italian  Ancestry.  I2 

being  named.  Alessandro  was  repeatedly  Gonfalonier 
from  1494  ;  the  mother  of  his  children  was  Angela  Bal- 
bani,  whom  he  married  in  15 10,  she  being  then  fifteen 
years  old,  and  he  fifty-one.  Now  began  those  encroach- 
ments upon  the  fair  domain  of  liberty  and  culture  in 
Italy  by  foreign  powers,  which  culminated  in  the  over- 
throw of  Italian  independence  under  the  Emperor 
Charles  5th  in  the  middle  of  the  16th  century.  But 
with  this  new  political  influence  from  beyond  the  Alps 
there  came,  also,  the  seeds  of  evangelical  truth  ;  and 
"in  the  first  half  of  the  i6th  century,"  by  the  bless- 
ing of  G(id  upon  the  zealous  labors  of  the  erudite  and 
devout  Peter  Martyr  Vermigli,  says  De  Bud^,  "  no  city 
of  Italy  counted  so  many  devoted  evangelical  Christians 
as  the  capital  of  the  republic  of  Lucca;"'  and  a  reformed 
church  was  founded  there,  which  the  Diodati  family  was 
known  to  favor,  though,  apparently,  without  an  open  de- 
parture from  the  old  fold  until  a  somewhat  later  period. 
In  I54i,the  Emperor  Charles  5th  and  Pope  Paul  3d  had 
their  memorable  interview  at  Lucca  on  the  affairs  of  Ger- 
many, the  emperor  being  then  in  the  mood  to  favor  Prot- 
estantism for  his  own  ambition's  sake  ;  when  Michele  Dio- 
dati, one  of  several  sons  of  the  last  named  Alessandro,  born 
in  1 5  ID,  was  Gonfalonier,  and,  as  the  famih'-tradition  runs, 
lodged  the  emperor  in  his  palace.  Just  then  was  born  to 
the  chief  magistrate  of  the  republic,  b3-  his  wife  Anna, 
daughter  of  Martino  Buonvisi,  his  third  son  ;  the  emperor, 
continues  the  tradition  of  the  family,  stood  godfather  to 
this  child,  baptized  by  the  pope,  and  gave  him  his  own 
name,  together  with  the  lordship  of  two  counties,  and  a 
quartering  from  the  imperial  arms,  and,  on  his  departure, 
left  behind  him  for  the  child  one  of  his  insignia  of  dia- 
monds, which  he  happened  to  be  wearing  about  his  neck.'" 


Mr.  William  Diodate  and  his  Italian  Ancestry.  13 

This  Carolo  Diodati  was  sent  in  his  yonth  to  L3ons,  to 
serve  an  apprentisage  in  one  of  the  banking  houses  of 
the  Buonvisi,  his  mother's  family  ;  became  a  frequenter  of 
the  reformed  preaching  there,  and  at  heart  a  Protestant; 
but  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  drove  him  out  of 
France,  and  he  took  refuge  in  Geneva,  where  he  was 
tenderly  received  and  entertained  by  the  pastor  of  the 
church  of  Italian  refugees,  already  established  there, 
Nicolo  Balbani,  was  admitted  into  the  church,  became 
a  citizen  of  Geneva  on  the  29th  of  December,  1572,  and 
contracted  a  second  marriage  with  Marie  daughter  of 
Vincenz(j  Mai,  by  whom  he  had  four  sons,  Joseph,  Theo- 
dore, Jean  and  Samuel,  and  three  daughters,  Anne,  Marie 
and  Madeleine. 

But,  before  we  pursue  the  fortunes  of  this  branch  ot  the 
familv.  which  especiall)'  interests  us,  on  account  of  de- 
scendants of  the  name  in  England  and  America,  three 
other  lines  claim  our  notice.  First,  Michele  the  Gon- 
falonier of  1 541  had  a  brother  Xicolo,  born  in  15 12,  who 
married  Elisabeta  daughter  of  Geronimo  Arnolfini,  and 
by  her  had  a  son,  Pompeio,  born  in  1542,  "qui  Pompeius" 
to  quote  a  family-document  "  Catholica  pejerata  Fide, 
Genevan!  se  contulit."  Pompeio  was  married  in  Italy 
to  Laura  daughter  of  Giuliano  Calandrini,  and  settled  at 
Geneva  with  his  wife  and  mother  in  1575,"  all  having  pre- 
viously joined  the  reformed  congregation  which  originated 
at  Lucca  under  Peter  Martyr,  and  having  been  compelled 
to  quit  their  native  land,  with  other  families,  by  the  new 
zeal  of  Pius  5th  against  the  Reformers,  in  league  with 
Philip  2d.  As  to  the  descendants  of  Pompeio  Diodati, 
beside  a  son  Eli,  who  became  an  eminent  jurist,  he  had  a 
son  Alessandro,  who  was  a  distinguished  physician,  at  one 
time  physician  in  ordinary  to  Louis  13th  of  France,  who 


Mr.  William  Diodate  and  his  Italian  Ancestry.  14 

himself  had  a  son  Jean,  and  a  grandson  Gabriel ;  and  in 
1719  this  Gabriel  received  from  Louis  15th,  "  by  the  grace 
of  God,  King  of  France  and  Navarre,"  a  sort  of  charter 
of  nobility,  still  preserved  in  the  family,  recognizing  the 
Diodatis  as  one  of  the  most  ancient  and  noble  families  of 
Lucca,  which  for  several  centuries  had  held  the  honors 
and  dignities  peculiar  to  nobility,  and  allied  itself  with 
noble  families  in  Lucca  and  Geneva,  without  having  ever 
derogated  from  its  dignity  ;  and  empowering  them,  ac- 
cordingly, to  hold  certain  lands  in  the  Pa3's  de  Gex,  which 
they  could  not  enjoy  without  the  royal  grant.  Possibly 
these  lands  are  the  same,  or  in  part  the  same,  which,  as 
we  shall  see.  had  been  bequeathed  by  a  grandson  of  the 
namesake  of  Charles  5th,  who  had  died  thirty-nine  years 
before,  a  bachelor,  to  whichever  of  his  nephews  should  go 
to  Geneva  to  live  :  neither  of  them  having  fulfilled  this 
condition,  and  his  will  not  having  provided  for  the  case, 
the  bequest  lapsed ;  and  a  royal  grant  may  have  been, 
consequently,  applied  for  in  favor  of  a  collateral  branch 
of  the  family.  In  the  latter  half  of  the  last  century,  how- 
ever, a  lineal  descendant  of  one  of  those  nephews  built 
the  castle  of  Vernier,  in  the  bailiwick  of  Ge.x — probably, 
therefore,  on  the  Gex  estate  of  the  Diodatis — which,  at 
his  death,  was  sold,  and  soon  after  passed,  by  a  second 
sale,  to  the  Naville  family,  who  hold  it  now.  The  builder 
of  the  Diodati  villa,  a  little  way  up  lake  Leman  from 
Geneva,  which  was  occupied  by  Lord  Byron,  and  is  still 
in  the  family,  was  a  Gabriel  Diodati,  probably  the  same 
who  received  this  grant  from  Louis  15th.  The  line  of 
direct  descent  from  Pompeio  Diodati  came  to  an  end,  bv 
the  death  of  Count  Jean  Diodati,  in  1807. 

Next  is  to  be  noted,  that  Pompeio  Diodati  had  a  brother 
Nicolo,  who,    in   the    family-records,    appears  as    having 


Mr.  William  Diodate  and  his  Italian  Ancestry.  15 

attained  to  high  dignities  under  the  new  order  of  things 
in  Italy  (though  at  one  time,  apparently,  an  emigrant  to 
Geneva  for  religion's  sake),'"  and  had,  beside  many  other 
children,  two  sons  Giovanni  and  Giulio,  of  whom  the  for- 
mer became  a  Knight  Templar  and  Prior  of  Venice,  and 
the  latter  a  "  Summus  Copiarum  Pr^efectus,"  or  Major 
General,  of  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  2d,  the  Catholic,  the 
leader  of  the  Catholic  party  in  the  beginning  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  as  appears  from  the  inscription  on  a  monu- 
ment in  the  Church  of  St.  Augustine  in  Lucca."  This 
branch  of  the  family,  also,  is  now  extinct. 

Another  branch  of  the  famil)-  which  retained  its  hold 
upon  the  old  home  in  Italy,  and  possessed  a  long  inherit- 
ance of  worldly  honors,  came  of  Ottaviano  Diodati,  a 
brother  of  the  namesake  of  the  Emperor  Charles  5th, 
born  in  1555,  who  married,  at  Genoa,  Eleonora  di  Casa 
Nuova.  He  himself  was  Gonfalonier  in  1620 ;  his  son, 
Lorenzo,  held  the  same  dignity  in  1651  ;  his  grandson 
Ottaviano,  in  1669  ;  his  great-grandson  Lorenzo  was  re- 
peatedly Gonfalonier  and  minister  to  various  European 
courts;  his  great-great-grandson  Ottaviano,  having  been, 
first,  in  holy  orders,  was  afterwards  Senator  and  Ancient ; 
and  the  son  of  this  last  Ottaviano,  another  Lorenzo,  was 
"  Prasfectus  Militum,"  or  General,  to  Charles  3d  of  Spain, 
whose  reign  covered  the  years  from  1759  to  1788.  Dur- 
ing the  sixteenth  centur}'  the  republic  (jf  Lucca  still  main- 
tained its  independence,  but  under  a  republican  form  of 
government  aristocracy  ruled  ;  the  seventeenth  century, 
under  the  malign  influence  of  Spanish  absolutism,  was  a 
time  of  universal  moral,  intellectual  and  political  death 
to  Italy,  which  Lucca  could  not  escape  b}"  attempting,  as 
it  did,  to  hide  itself  from  observation  under  an  enforced 
silence,  with  a  law  forbidding  the  publication  ot  any  facts 


Mr.  Williain  Dwdate  and  his  Italian  Ancestry.  l6 

of  its  history  ;  and  the  same  reserve  and  withdrawal  from 
all  active  concern  for  the  national  honor,  was  even  more 
marked  as  the  eighteenth  century  came  and  passed." 
Such  are  the  historical  facts  in  the  light  of  wTiich  the 
honors  of  the  Diodatis  during  this  period  are  to  be  inter- 
preted. The  generalship  under  Charles  3d  of  Spain  is 
also  significant,  as  showing  that  one  of  the  family,  at  that 
time,  was  ready  to  sacrifice  even  what  little  remained  of 
the  life  of  his  country  to  the  will  of  the  alien  oppressor. 
The  second  Lorenzo  of  this  branch  had  also,  already, 
allied  himself  with  Spain,  for  his  wife  was  Isabella  daugh- 
ter of  a  noble  Catalan  named  Bellet.  In  this  connection 
may  be  mentioned,  further,  that  "there  is  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  family  [in  Geneva]  a  superb  folio,  bound  in 
crimson  velvet,  of  fourteen  pages  of  vellum,  with  the  impe- 
rial seal  of  Joseph  2d  [1765-90]  hanging  from  it  in  a  gilt 
box,  which  recites  the  dignities  of  the  Diodati  family  in 
magnificent  terms,  and  confirms  to  it  the  title  of  Count  (jf 
the  Empire.  One  of  the  pages  is  occupied  with  a  fine 
illumination  of  the  family-arms,  the  shield  being  placed  on 
the  imperial  eagle."" 

Returning,  now,  to  take  up  the  thread  of  our  story 
where  we  dropped  it,  at  the  mention  of  the  names  of  the 
children  of  Carolo  Diodati,  the  namesake  of  the  Emperor 
Charles  5th — as  to  his  daughters,  they  allied  themselves, 
severally,  with  the  families  Burlamaqui,  OfTredi  and  Pel- 
lissari,  all  doubtless  fellow-exiles  with  the  Diodatis;  and 
that  is  all  we  know  of  the  female  line  of  Carolo's  posterity. 
Of  the  sons  we  are  told  of  the  fortunes  of  only  two,  Theo- 
dore and  Jean.  Theodore  Diodati,  born  in  1574  at  Geneva, 
being  educated  as  a  physician,  went  early  to  England, 
where  he  is  heard  of,  says  Professor  Masson,  in  his  intro- 
duction to   Milton's  Latin  Elegies,  "as  living,   about  the 


Mr.  W'il/iajn  Diodate  and  his  Italian  Ancestry.  17 

3'ear  1609,  near  Brentford,  in  professional  attendance  on 
Prince    Henry,  and    the    Princess    Elizabeth  [afterwards 
Queen  of  Bohemia].'""     He  received  the  degree  of  Doc- 
tor of  Medicine  at  Leyden,  Oct.  6,  1615,  and  was  admitted 
a  Licentiate  of  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians  in  Lon- 
don, Jan.  24,  1616-17.    He  became  an  eminent  practitioner, 
"much    among    persons    of   rank,"    residing  in    London, 
apparently,  to  the  age  of  seventy-six,  his  burial  having 
been  in  the  parish-church  of  St.  Bartholomew  the  Less, 
Feb.    12,    1650-1.     "The  naturalized  London  physician," 
says  Masson,  "  is  to  be  fancied,  it  seems,  as  a  cheery,  active 
veteran,    with  C(5urtly  and  gallant   Italian   ways    to    the 
last.""    He  was  twice  married,  first  to  an  English  "  lady  of 
good  birth  and  fortune,"  by  whom  he  had  three  children  ; 
and  afterwards  to  another  English  lady,  who  brought  him 
"goods  and  estate,"  survived   him,  and  was  his  executrix. 
The  children  of  Dr.  Diodati  were  Philadelphia,  buried  at 
St.  Anne's,  Blackfriars,  x\ug.  10,  163S;  John,  "mentioned," 
as  Col.  Chester  says,    "  in  the   will  of  Elizabeth  Cundall 
(widow  of  Henry  Cundall,  the  partner  of  Burbage  in  the 
Globe  Theatre),  dated  September,    1635  ;"    and  Charles, 
the  well-known  youthful  companion  and  bosom-friend  of 
Milton,  whose   life  and  character  are  delineated,  in  con- 
nection  with    those    of  Milton,  in    so  very   interesting  a 
manner,    by    means  of   the  joint  researches  of  Professor 
Masson     and    Col.     Chester,    in     the    former's    Life    of 
Milton  and   in   his  edition   of  Milton's    Poetical  Works  ; 
to  whom   Milton    addressed    two   of    his    Latin    sonnets, 
and    who  was    the  subject  of   his    Epitaphium   Damonis. 
Specially  note-worthy,  in  the  relations  of  the  two  friends, 
is  the  contrast  between  Milton's  studious  gravity  and  the 
blithesome  cheerfulness  of  Diodati,  whom  "one  fancies," 
says  Masson,  "as  a  quick, amiable,  intelligent  youth,  with 


Mr.  William  Diodate  and  Jiis  Italian  Ancestry.  18 

something  of  his  Italian  descent  visible  in  his  face  and 
manner.""  This  Charles  "  was  born  about  1609,"  says 
Col.  Chester,  "as  he  was  m.atriculated  at  Oxford,  from 
Trinity  College,  Feb.  7,  1622-3,  aged  thirteen  at  his  last 
birth-day  ;"  and  to  the  same  diligent  antiquary  we  owe 
the  discovery  of  the  date  of  his  death,  in  Aug.,  1638,  his 
burial  having  been  at  St.  Anne's,  Blackfriars,  Aug.  27, 
1638,  only  seventeen  days  after  that  of  his  sister. 
"Letters  of  administration  on  his  estate,  in  which  he  is 
described  as  a  bachelor,  were  granted  to  his  brother 
John  in  the  Prerogative  Court  of  Canterbury,  Oct.  3, 
1638."  John  (grandfather  of  our  William),  the  brother 
of  Charles,  was  married  at  St.  Margaret's,  Westminster, 
Julv  28,  1635,  to  Isabel  Underwood,  who  died  and  was 
buried  in  June,  1638,  leaving  a  son  Richard,  who  was 
baptized  June  29  of  the  same  year.  Philadelphia  and 
Charles,  though  unmarried  at  the  time  of  their  death,  were 
not  living  with  their  father,  but,  as  Col.  Chester  has  shown, 
at  a  "  Mr.  DoUam's  "  in  Blackfriars  :  which  is  explained 
by  the  supposition  of  a  family-feud  consequent  upon  the 
second  marriage  of  their  father,  a  fact  plainly  enough 
alluded  to,  indeed,  in  one  of  the  Latin  letters  of  Milton, 
addressed  to  his  friend  in  1637  :  "quod,  nisi  bellum  hoc  no- 
vercale  vel  Dacico  vel  Sarmatico  infestius  sit,  debebis  pro- 
fecto  maturare,  ut  ad  nos  saltern  in  hyberna  concedas."" 
Nor  is  there  any  child,  or  grandchild,  named  in  the  will 
of  the  old  physician,  who  makes  a  nephew  Theodore  his 
residuary  legatee  ;  so  that  either  all  his  direct  descendants 
had  died  before  him,  or  he  carried  the  family-quarrel  with 
him  to  his  grave;  and  the  latter  appears  to  be  the  fact. 
In  England,  it  may  be  well  to  mention,  the  family-name 
was  variously  corrupted,  being  written  as  Deodate,  Dyo- 
dat  and  Diodate,  which  last  is  the  American  form. 


Mr.  William  Diodate  and  his  Italian  Ancestry.  19 

Another  sun  oi  the  namesake  of  Charles  5th  was  the 
Rev.  Jean  Diodati,  born  in  Geneva  in  1576,  whose  home 
was  in  that  city  during  the  whole  of  his  life  of  seventy- 
three  years,  but  whose  fame  and  influence  were  all  over 
Europe  while  he  lived,  and  of  a  nature  not  to  perish  with 
the  lapse  of  time,  like  those  honors  which  fell,  as  we  have 
seen,  to  others  of  his  race.  The  main  points  in  his  life, 
and  his  principal  works,  have  been  often  noticed  ;  yet  with 
less  of  living  portraiture  of  character  than  could  be  de- 
sired, except  in  the  recent  publication  of  De  Bud^,  of 
which  the  title  has  been  already  given,  which  we  shall  chief- 
ly follow,  therefore,  in  the  sketch  here  given.  From  his 
youth,  when  he  already  manifested  great  acuteness  of  mind 
and  precision  of  judgment,  he  was  destined  for  the  sacred 
ministry.  His  education  was  in  the  Academy  of  Geneva, 
under  such  men  as  Beza  and  Casaubon,  and  so  rapid  was 
his  progress  that  he  became  a  doctor  of  theology  before 
the  age  of  nineteen,  and  soon  after  succeeded  Casaubon  as 
professor  of  Hebrew,  and  in  the  old  age  of  Beza  assisted 
to  fill  his  place.  Already  in  the  year  1603,  when  he  was 
only  twenty -seven  years  old,  he  presented  to  the  Vener- 
able Company  of  Pastors  of  Geneva  his  Italian  version 
of  the  Bible,  a  work  which  was  highly  esteemed  by  his 
most  learned  contemporaries,  and  has  never  yet  been  su- 
perseded. The-  following  is  an  extract  from  a  letter  of 
Isaac  Casaubon  acknowledging  a  copy  from  the  translator  : 
"  Lorsque  rt^cemment  j'ai  repondu  a  ta  lettre  amicale,  il- 
lustre  Deodati,  je  n'avais  pas  encore  re^u  le  pri^sent  vrai- 
ment  divin  dcMit  tu  m'as  gratitie.  Aussi  t'en  ai-je  remer- 
cie  davance,  en  homnie  qui  ne  I'avait  pas  lu,  et  qui  n'avait 
pas  assouvi  par  une  lecture  approfondie  la  soil  d'en  jouir 
commej'ai  tachede  le  faireplus  tard  .  .  .  En  effet,  tr^s  sav- 
ant homme,  dos  que  j'eus  jete  les  yeux  sur  ta  version  et  les 


Mr.  Williaiii  Diodate  and  his  Italian  Ancestry.  20 

notes  si  remarquables,  je  tus  tellenient  int^resse  que  je 
resolus  sur  le  champ  de    prendre    connaissance  de  tout 

Fouvrage  avec  le  plus  grand   soin Maintenant 

comme  d'autres  soucis  assez  differents  m'ecrasent  pour 
ainsi  dire,  ce  sera  plus  lentement  mais  plus  attentivement 
que  je  poursuivrai  la  lecture  que  j'ai  commencee,  et  je 
le  ferai  avec  d'autant  plus  de  perseverance  que  dej4  sou- 
vent  j'ai  eprouve  quel  grand  profit  je  trouverai  dans 
r^tude  de  ta  version  et  de  tes  notes."" 

But  Jean  Diodati  was  far  from  being  a  man  of  learning 
alone  :  he  had  too  much  of  Italian  fervor  of  temperament, 
and  was  too  deepl}-  imbued  with  the  Christian  spirit,  not 
to  wish  to  take  a  part  in  spreading  the  faith  which  he 
could  not  but  nourish  by  the  study  of  the  Scriptures  ;  and 
his  attention  was  most  naturally  directed,  in  a  special 
manner,  to  his  beloved  native  land.  Venice  was  the  out- 
post which  he  aspired  to  take  possession  of  for  the  cause 
of  Reform,  where  a  great  hostility  to  the  Papal  See,  in 
consequence  of  the  e.xcommunication  of  the  Republic  b}' 
Paul  5th,  the  potent  influence,  though  secret,  o\  the  cele- 
brated Fra  Paolo  Sarpi,  the  encouragement  of  the  English 
ambassador  Wotton,  and  other  circumstances,  seemed  to 
have  opened  the  way.  More  or  less,  during  the  years 
from  1605  to  1610,  our  Diodati  was  engaged  in  this  enter- 
prise, and  in  that  time  he  twice  visited  Venice  in  person. 
His  plans,  however,  failed,  and  we  refer  to  the  undertak- 
ing more  for  the  light  it  throws  upon  the  character  of 
the  man  than  for  any  historical  importance  attaching  to 
it.  Between  himself  and  Sarpi  (of  whom  he  says,  evi- 
dently with  impatience,  that  his  "  incomparable  learning 
was  diluted  b}'  such  a  scrupulous  prudence,  and  so  little 
enlivened  and  sharpened  by  fervor  of  spirit,  although  ac- 
companied by  a  very  upright  and  wholly  exemplary  lite," 


Mr.  William  Diodatc  and  his  [talian  Ancestry.  21 

that  he  judged  him  incapable  of  any  boldness  of  action, 
to  effect  an  entrance  for  the  truth),  there  would  appear  to 
have  been  little  affinity  of  spirit.  Yet  his  enterprise  and 
courage  were  not  the  fruit  of  inconsiderate  self-confidence. 
"  I  shall  be  very  careful,"  he  wrote  to  Du  Plessis  Morna}', 
in  France,  with  respect  to  his  plans  for  Venice,  "  not  to 
oppose  a  barrier  to  the  ver}'  free  operation  of  the  Divine 
Spirit,  either  by  the  consideration  of  my  own  incapacity, 
or  by  apprehension  of  any  danger.  I  am  sure  that  God, 
who  beyond  my  hopes  and  aspirations  used  me  in  the  mat- 
ter of  His  Scriptures,  so  opportunely  for  this  great  work, 
with  happy  success,  as  the  judgments  of  diverse  distin- 
guished persons,  and  \-our  own  among  others,  lead  me  to 
believe,  will  also  give  me  a  mouth,  and  power  and  wis- 
dom, if  need  be,  to  serve  in  these  parts  for  the  advancement 
of  His  kingdom,  and  the  destruction  of  great  Bab3-lon." 
On  his  return  for  the  last  time  from  Venice,  Jean  Diodati 
was  first  formally  consecrated  to  the  ministry  of  the  Word, 
for  which,  there  is  reason  to  believe,  he  was  especially  fit- 
ted. "  His  eloquent  voice."  it  has  been  said,  "  his  impres- 
sive deliver}-,  and  his  prcjfound  convictions,  produced  such 
an  effect  on  his  numerous  hearers  that  they  were  strength- 
ened in  their  belief,  corrected  in  their  conduct,  renovated 
in  their  sentiments."  But  let  us  hear,  on  the  other  hand, 
with  what  genuine  modest}-  he  assumed  the  solemn  re- 
sponsibility of  a  preacher.  "On  mv  return,"  he  writes  to 
Du  Plessis  Mornay,  "  I  was  on  a  sudden  charged  with  the 
sacred  ministry,  to  which  I  had  engaged  myselt  by  prom- 
ise betore  my  departure,  and  not  without  many  ap|)rehen- 
sions  and  much  awe,  which  kept  me  in  a  state  of  great 
perplexity  until  I  resolved  to  abandon  myself,  aside  from 
and  contrary  to  all  reasoning  and  judgment  of  my  own,  to 
the  necessitv  of  the  case,  and  the  call  of  God,  which,  as  it 


Mr.  William  Dwdate  and  his  Italian  Ancestry.  22 

has  respect  to  the  needs  of  His  church,  will,  1  hope  and 
am  already  confident,  be  accompanied  with  His  powerful 
benediction,  so  that  I  may  in  some  small  measure  answer 
to  the  same."  So  well  did  he  meet  this  call  that  several 
churches  of  France,  in  the  course  of  time,  sought  him 
for  their  pastor,  and  Prince  Maurice,  at  the  time  of  the 
Synod  of  Dort,  pressed  him  to  remain  in  the  Low 
Countries;  but  he  never  settled  himself  long  out  of 
Geneva.  Some  want  of  clearness  in  discourse  has  been 
charged  to  Diodati,  which  he  was  ready  to  justify  by  say- 
ing, on  one  occasion,  "  Clear  waters  are  never  deep  ;"  and 
his  fervor  seems  to  have  sometimes  become  vehemence. 
As  a  preacher,  he  was  ever  distinguished  by  a  noble  bold- 
ness, which  Innocent  loth  is  said  to  have  felt  the  force  ot. 
to  his  own  correction,  on  the  report  of  a  sermon  ot  Dio- 
dati, in  which  he  had  declared  the  Church  of  Rome  to  be 
scandalously  governed  by  a  woman,  meaning  Donna 
Olympia.  "  From  Morrice's  '  State  Letters  of  the  Rt. 
Hon.  the  earl  of  Orrery,'  "  says  Chalmers,  "  we  learn  that, 
when  invited  to  preach  at  Venice,  he  was  obliged  to 
equip  himself  in  a  trooper's  habit,  a  scarlet  cloak  with  a 
sword,  and  in  that  garb  he  mounted  the  pulpit :  but  was 
obliged  to  escape  again  to  Geneva,  from  the  wrath  ot  a 
Venetian  nobleman,  whose  mistress,  affected  by  one  of 
Diodati's  sermons,  had  refused  to  continue  her  connec- 
tion with  her  keeper."" 

.\fter  the  death  of  Henry  4th,  when  there  were  fears 
of  an  attack  upon  Geneva  by  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  he  was 
appointed  to  visit  the  Protestants  of  France  in  behalf  of 
his  native  city  ;    and  his  mission  was  highly  successful. 

One  of  the  chief  marks  of  distinction  received  by  our 
Genevese  divine,  and  which  is  next  to  be  noticed  m  the 
order  of  time,  was  his  appointment,  jointly  with  Tronchin, 


Mr.  William  Diodate  and  his  Italian  Ancestry.  23 

to  represent  Geneva  at  the  Synod  of  Dort,  in   1618-19  ; 
and  here  he  comes  before  us   in   a  somewhat  new  light. 
There  had  been  doubt  about  inviting  any  delegates  from 
the  chief  seat  of  Calvinistic  doctrine,  to  avoid  an  appear- 
ance of  partiality,  in  calling  them  to  take  part  in  judging 
of  the  orthodoxy  of  the  Remonstrants;    nor  could   there 
have    been    chosen   twcj    men    less  disposed  to  any  com- 
promise in  matters  of  theological  t)pinion,  apparently,  than 
our  Diodati  and  his  colleague.      Neither  that  tenderness 
(jf  sympath)-  for  errorisis,  nor  that  broader  mental  habit 
of  discriminatiDn  between  the  essential  and  the  unessen- 
tial, which  we  have  reason  to  suppose  belonged  to  Diodati 
by  nature  and  through  the  influence  of  his  special  training 
in  Biblical  study,  seems  to  have  preserved  him  from  a  cer- 
tain hardness  of  resistance  to  the  plea  for  toleration,  or  at 
least  for  a  liberal  and  charitable  judgment,  without  preju- 
dice, of  those   who   could    not  conscientiously  swear  by 
Calvin.    Our  authority  on  this  subject  is  Brandt's  History 
of  the  Reformation  and  other  Ecclesiastical  Transactions  in 
and  about  the  Low  Countries,  vol.  3d  of  the  English  trans- 
lation, which,  though  from   the  side  of  the   Remonstrant 
party,  is  relied  upon  for  its  statement  of  facts.    In  an  early 
session  of  the  Synod,  on  the  question  of  its  right  to  adjud- 
icate, raised  by  the  Remonstrants,  both  the  Genevese  depu- 
ties declared  "  that,  if  people  obstinately  refused  to  submit 
to  the   lawful   determinations  of  the  Church,   then    there 
remained  two  methods  to  be  used  against  them  :  the  (jne 
was  that  the  civil  magistrate  might  stretch  out  his  arm  of 
compulsion  ;  and  the  other,  that  the  Church  might  exert 
her  power  in  order  to  separate  and  to  cut  off,  by  a  public 
sentence,  those  who  violated  the  laws  of  God.""      What 
more  absolute  control  over  opinion  was  ever  asserted  even 
by  the  See  of  Rome  I     Later,  as  we  read,  "  Diodatus  said, 


Mr.  William  Diodatc  and  his  Italian  Aiueslry.  24 

in  the  name  of  those  of  Geneva,  that  the  doctrines  of  the 
Remonstrants  might  be  sufficiently  learned  from  the  con- 
ference at  the  Hague  and  their  books.  Let  them  go,  then, 
said  he,  as  unworthy  to  appear  any  longer  at  the  Synod. 
There  was  no  difficulty  in  coming  at  the  knowledge  of 
their  doctrines  without  them,  and  even  against  their  will."" 
Yet,  at  the  io6th  session,  it  is  said,  "  Diodatus,  whose  turn 
of  haranguing  in  publick  had  been  now  superseded  several 
times,  on  account  of  his  indisposition,  treated  about  the 
perseverance  of  the  saints,"  .  .  .  and  "  spoke  of  the 
doctrine  of  reprobation  in  milder  terms  than  the  Contra- 
remonstrants  were  wont  to  do,  denying  that  sin  was  a 
fruit  of  reprobation.  When  he  came  to  the  Remonstrant 
arguments,  relating  to  their  opinion  of  perseverance,"  the 
record  adds,  "  he  was  heard  to  say,  '  that  he  was  not  pre- 
pared to  answer  the  evasions  and  exceptions  of  those  new 
philosophers,  who  by  their  subtilties  and  niceties  over- 
turned all  principles,  and  brought  all  things  into  doubt ;  as 
for  iiim,  he  would  keep  to  his  good  old  ways.'  "''  At  the 
i2ist  session,  when  the  opinions  of  several  of  the  foreign 
divines  were  taken  on  the  article  in  the  statement  of  the 
Remonstrants  relative  to  perseverance,  "  those  of  Geneva 
said,  '  that  they  obscured  the  honour  of  God  :  that  they 
sapped  the  foundations  of  salvation  ;  that  thev  robbed 
men  of  all  their  comfort ;  that  they  brought  in  rank  popery 
again,  and  cooked  up  the  old  Pelagian  heresy  again  with 
a  new  sauce ;  they  therefore  prayed  to  God  with  all 
their  hearts,  that  the  supreme  powers  of  this  land  would 
exert  themselves  courageously  and  piously,  in  order  to 
extirpate  this  corrupt  leven,  and  to  free  all  their  churches 
from  the  dangers  of  this  contagion.'  "" 

When  the  time  came  to  draw  up  canons  which  should 
express  the  decisions  of  this  specially  Calvinistic  synod, 


Mr.  William  Diodaie  and  liis  Italian  Ancestry.  25 

Jean  Diodati  was  one  of  six  deputies  chosen  to  act  with 
the  President  for  that  purpose  ;  and  meanwhile  his  voire 
was  given  in  favor  of  a  "personal  censure"  pronounced 
upon  those  whose  opinions  were  condemned,  "as  intro- 
ducers of  novelties,  disturbers  of  their  country,  and  of  the 
Netherland  churches;  as  obstinate  and  disobedient  pro- 
moters of  factions  and  preachers  of  errors;  as  guilt}'  and 
convicted  of  corrupting  religion,  of  schism,  or  dissolving 
the  unity  of  the  Church,  and  of  having  given  very  grievous 
scandal  and  offense  ;  for  all  which  they  were  sentenced  to 
be  deprived  of  all  ecclesiastical  and  academical  offices."" 

F'rom  Dort,  Diodati  went  to  England,  doubtless,  in  part, 
to  visit  his  brother  Theodore. 

Beside  his  Italian  version  of  the  Scriptures,  Jean  Dio- 
dati also  made  a  French  translation,  from  his  Italian,  the 
publication  of  which,  though  discouraged  for  years,  was 
finally  permitted  in  1644;  and  he  is  said  to  have  under- 
taken, to  what  end  does  not  appear,  a  version  in  Latin  ; 
the  family-archives  also  intimate  that  a  Spanish  version 
was  due  to  him,  though  it  is  hardl\-  to  be  believed  that 
this  could  have  been  more  than  a  translation,  by  some 
other  hand,  of  his  so  highly  reputed    Italian. 

In  1621,  there  appeared  at  Geneva  a  French  translation, 
by  Diodati,  of  a  History  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  written 
in  Italian,  in  the  interest  of  Protestantism,  and  ascribed 
to  Fra  Paolo  Sarpi.  He  also  translated  the  Psalms  into 
"rime  vulgare  Italiane,"  published  at  Geneva  in  1608; 
and  was  the  author  of  Annotationes  in  Biblia,  published 
there  in  1607,  substantially  the  same  with  the  notes  which 
Casaubon  speaks  of  in  his  letter  above  quoted,  and  with 
the  notes  which  accompan\-  his  French  version  ;  a  later 
edition  appeared  in  1644,  under  the  title  of  Glossae  in 
Sancta  Biblia.       Other   valuable   works,  and   many  single 


Mr.  Williatn  Diodatc  and  Ids  Italian  Ancestry.  26 

dissertations  on  various  theological  and  ecclesiastical  sub- 
jects, which  it  is  needless  to  specify  here,  were  also  written 
by  him.  There  is  reason  to  believe,  however,  that  the 
chief  occupation  of  the  last  third  of  Diodati's  life,  beside 
his  duties  of  instruction  in  the  Academy  of  Geneva,  was 
the  revision  and  re-casting  of  his  notes  on  the  Scriptures, 
in  connection  with  his  translations.  From  Masson  we 
learn,  further,  that  "besides  his  celebrity  as  professor  of 
theology,  city  preacher,  translator  of  the  Bible  into  Ital- 
ian, and  author  of  several  theological  works,  Diodati  was 
celebrated  as  an  instructor  of  young  men  of  rank  sent  to 
board  in  his  house.  About  the  year  1639,"  he  adds,  "  there 
were  many  young  foreigners  of  distinction  pursuing  their 
studies  in  Geneva,  including  Charles  Gustavus,  afterwards 
kino-  of  Sweden,  and  several  princes  of  German  Protest- 
ant  houses,  and  some  of  these  appear  to  have  been  among 
Diodati's  private  pupils."''  We  only  mention  further,  as 
included  in  this  period,  that  Milton  in  1639,  on  his  return 
from  Italy,  to  use  his  own  words,  was  "  daily  in  the  so- 
ciety of  John  Diodati,  the  most  learned  professor  of  the- 
ology,"" from  whom  he  probably  first  heard  of  the  death 
of  his  friend  Charles,  the  nephew  of  the  divine.  The 
death  of  the   Rev.  Jean  Diodati  occurred  in  1649. 

This  distinguished  divine  married  Madeleine  daughter 
of  Michel  Burlamaqui,"  at  Geneva,  in  Dec,  1600:  by 
whom  he  had  nine  children,  five  sons  and  four  daughters. 
Of  the  sons,  who  alone  concern  us  here,  one  was  Theo- 
dore, made  Doctor  of  Medicine  at  Leyden,  Feb.  4,  1643, 
and  admitted  Honorary  Member  of  the  Royal  College  of 
Physicians  of  London  in  Dec,  1664;  who  resided  in  Lon- 
don, though  not,  as  it  seems,  in  the  practice  of  his  profes- 
sion, but  as  a  merchant :  in  the  letters  of  administration 
on  his  estate,  granted  July  24,  1680,  he  is  called  "  Doctor 


J/r.   Williaiii  Diodatc  and  his  Italian  Ancestry.         27 

in  Medicine  and  Merchant."  He  had  no  children,  and  be- 
queathed most  of  his  propert}- — including  two  estates  "  in 
the  bailiwick  of  Gex.one  in  the  village  and  parish  of  Fer- 
nex,  the  other  in  the  village  and  parish  of  Vernier,  within 
a  league  of  Geneva  " — reserving  a  life-interest  in  tlie  real 
estate  to  a  sister  Renee — to  three  nephews  named  Philip, 
John  and  Ralph:  with  these  provisos,  however:  that  "if 
either  revolt  from  the  Retbrmed  Religion  in  which  he  was 
brought  up,  I  disinherit  him,"  and  "  if  all  said  nephews  die 
without  issue,  then  my  estate  to  go  to  build  a  hospital  for 
poor  strangers  at  Geneva."  The  real  estate  was  to  pass, 
eventually,  to  whichever  one  of  his  nephews  should  go  to 
Geneva  to  live,  of  whom  he  mentions  Ralph  as  most  likely 
so  to  do  ;  and  the  property  must  not  be  sold,  but  kept  in 
the  family.  We  also  find  the  following  item  in  his  will  : 
"  There  is  also  at  Geneva,  in  my  sister  Renee  Diodati  her 
keeping,  a  copy  of  the  French  Bible  of  the  translation  of 
my  deceased  father,  reviewed  and  enlarged  by  him  with  di- 
vers annotations,  since  the  former  cop\-  which  was  printed 
before  his  death,  which  I  doe  esteeme  very  much,  and  I  will 
that  it  be  printed,  etc."  Legacies  were  also  left  to  the  pooi" 
ot  the  French  and  Italian  churches  of  Geneva,  tiic  French 
churches  ot  London  and  the  Savo}-,  and  the  Italian  church 
of  London,  and  those  of  Fernex  and  Vernier.  Another 
son  of  the  Rev.  Jean  Diodati  was  Charles,  who  also  went 
to  England,  on  whose  estate,  on  the  13th  of  Aug.,  1651, 
letters  of  administration  were  granted  "to  Theodore  Dio- 
dati next  of  kin  " — evidently  his  brother  Theodore — styl- 
ing him  "  of  St.  Mary  Magdalen,  Old  Fish  Street,  London, 
bachelor."  A  third  son,  named  Samuel,  "  became  a  mer- 
chant in  Holland,"  whither  he  went  in  1658;  he  lived 
single  and  died  in  1676.  Another  son  was  named  Marc, 
who  also  died  without  descendants,  in  1641,  at  Amsterdam. 


Mr.  \Vi Ilia  1)1  Diodate  and  his  Italian  Ancestry.  28 

The  only  son  through  whom  the  line  of  direct  descent 
from  the  Genevese  divine  was  perpetuated,  was  Philippe, 
who  studied  theology,  first  under  his  father  and  other 
learned  professors  of  Geneva,  and  afterwards  at  Montau- 
ban  in  France;  went  to  Holland,  and  was  in  165  i  installed 
pastor  of  the  Walloon  Church  ot  Leyden.  He  married 
Elizabeth  daughter  of  St^bastien  Francken,  alderman  of 
Dort  and  counsellor  of  the  Provincial  Court  of  Holland  ; 
with  whom  he  lived  a  happ)'  married  life  of  five  3'ears, 
and  died  Oct.  6,  1659.  Four  sons  were  born  to  him, 
of  whom  one  died  in  infancy,  and  the  other  three 
were  Philippe  Sebastien,  Rodolphe  and  Jean,  the  three 
nephews  of  the  Theodore  just  named,  whom  he  made, 
as  we  have  seen,  his  principal  legatees.  Philippe  settled 
in  Holland  ;  he  administered,  however,  in  England,  in 
1680,  on  his  uncle  Thecjdore's  estate,  with  his  brother 
Jean.  In  the  record  ot  Doctors'  Commons  he  is  called 
Doctor  of  Laws.  He  married  Lidia  Blankart,  and  was  a 
counsellor  at  Rotterdam.  Ralph,  ox  Rudolphe,  it  seems, 
did  not  go  to  Geneva  to  live,  as  his  uncle  expected:  he 
went  to  the  East;  married  on  the  Mauritius  Catherine 
Saaijmans  of  that  island  ;  was  at  one  time  Chief  of  the 
Dutch  East  India  Company  in  Japan  ;  and  died  at  Batavia. 

The  only  other  son  of  Philippe  Diodati  was  Jean,  born  at 
Leyden  July  28,  1658,  who,  after  passing  a  commercial  ap- 
prentisage  at  Dort,  embarked  for  Batavia  in  the  island  of 
Java,  in  May.  1679,  to  establish  himself  as  a  merchant  there. 
On  the  2d  of  April,  1680 — probably,  therefore,  in  India — he 
married  Aldegonda  Trouvers  (T ravers  ?),  of  a  prominent 
Irish  family,  as  is  said,  by  whom  he  had  several  children; 
and  died  in  171 1  at  Surat,  where  his  remains  are  said  to 
have  reposed  beneath  a  "superb  monument,"  erected  to 
his  metnory  by  his  daughters.'"    His  wife  had  died  in  1698. 


Mr.  William  Diodatc  and  his  Italian  Ancestry.  29 

1  wo  of  the  children  of  Jean  Diodati  by  Aldegonda 
Trouvers  were  Philippe  and  Salomon,  born  at  Dort  in 
1686  and  1688,  who  both  became  associates  of  the  Dutch 
East  India  Company  at  Batavia.  The  former  died  child- 
less, at  Batavia,  on  the  26th  of  Jan.,  1733,  bequeathing 
75,000  francs  to  the  Cathedral  of  Dort,  for  the  purchase 
of  communion-plate.  The  latter,  on  the  7th  of  December, 
1713,  married  Gertrude  daughter  of  Jerome  Slott,  and  in 
1733  returned  to  Holland  with  his  wife  and  two  sons, 
Martin  Jacob  and  Antoine  Josue,  and  settled  at  the 
Hague,  where  he  died  in  1753.  Of  these  two  sons,  Martin 
established  himself  in  Hcjlland,  and  died  without  male 
descendants;  the  other,  born  in  1728,  having  studied 
theology  at  Geneva,  went  back  to  the  Hague,  and  became 
chaplain  to  the  King  of  Holland.  Later,  he  married 
Marie  Aimee  Rilliet  of  Geneva,  and  settled  there.  He 
was  the  builder  of  the  castle  of  Vernier,  already  referred 
to  (p.  14),  and  lived  there  till  he  died,  in  1791.  He  was  a 
great  amateur  of  the  fine  arts,  and  had  his  house  always 
full  of  artists;  and,  in  consequence  of  his  expensive  style 
of  living,  left  his  fortune  very  much  diminished  to  his 
children,  of  whom  he  had  eight,  three  sons  and  five 
daughters.  But  the  name  was  transmitted  by  only  one 
of  the  sons,  named  Jacques  Amedee,  whose  son  Edouard, 
professor  in  the  Academy  of  Geneva  and  Librarian  of 
that  city,  was  the  father  of  Mr.  Gabriel  C.  Diodati  and 
his  two  brothers.  Messieurs  Theodore  and  Aloys,  who 
worthily  maintain  the  honors  of  the  family  at  Geneva  at 
the  present  time. 

We  have  thus  briefly  sketched  the  history  of  this  re- 
markable family  ;  and  all  of  the  name  appearing  in  English 
records  have  been  mentioned  in  their  places  in  the  line  t)f 


Mr.   Wiliiavi  Diodatc  ami  liia  Italian  Ancestry.  3c 

descent,  down  to  and  including  the  grandfather  of  William 
Diodate  ;  unless  a  separate  place  could  have  been  found  for 
a  John  Diodati,  who  engaged  in  business  in  London,  being 
called  a  "  Factor"  in  some  entries  concerning  him,  and  on 
whose  estate  letters  of  administration  were  granted  Feb. 
25,  1687-8,  to  his  son  John,  his  relict  Sarah  renouncing. 
But  this  person  is  identified  by  Col.  Chester,  after  thor- 
ough research,  with  John  the  brother  of  Milton's  friend, 
who  buried  his  wife  Isabel  Underwood  in  1638,  as  stated 
above  (p.  18),  a  son  of  his  by  a  second  marriage  being  the 
father  of  William.  The  identification  is  made  necessary 
by  the  proved  impossibility  of  finding  any  other  place  for 
John  the  "Factor"  in  the  pedigree  ;  while  the  date  of  the 
birth  of  William's  father  corresponds  with  all  the  known 
dates  of  this  John's  life,  supposing  him  one  with  the 
brother  of  Milton's  friend  of  the  same  name. 

All  that  English  records  tell  us  of  William  Diodate's 
father  is  embraced  in  the  following  particulars.  On  the 
14th  ot  May,  1682,  a  license  was  given  him  to  marry  Mercy 
Tilney,  of  St.  Michael  Bassishaw,  London,  being  himself 
described,  in  the  marriage-license,  as  a  "  bachelor,  aged 
about  22  [therefore  born  about  1660],  with  parents'  con- 
sent :"  and  by  this  marriage  he  had  four  children,  who  all 
died  in  infancy.  The  wife  died  in  the  parish  of  St.  Andrew, 
Undershaft,  London,  and  was  buried  at  Blackfriars,  Sept. 
18,  1689.  On  the  6th  of  Jan.,  1689-90,  he  had  a  license  to 
marry  Mistress  Elizabeth  Morton,  of  Tottenham,  County 
Middlesex,  he  being  then  described  as  "of  St.  Andrew, 
Undershaft,  London,  merchant,  widower,  aged  about  30." 
The  history  of  Elizabeth  Morton,  worked  out  by  Col. 
Chester  with  much  care  and  labor,  is  given  by  him  in 
brief,  as  follows:  "Rev.  .\drian  Whicker,  vicar  of  Kirt- 
lington,  Oxfordshire  (where  he  was  buried  16  June.  i6i6\ 


Mr.   William  Dicdate  and  his  Italian  A>icestry.  31 

b}-  his  wife  Jane  (buried  there  8  Dec,  1641),  had  several 
children,  of  whom  the  eldest  son  was  John  Whicker,  born 
in  St.  Aldate's  parish  in  the  cit}-  of  Oxford,  who  became  a 
merchant  in  London,  but  at  his  death  desired  to  be  buried 
at  Kirtlington.  His  will,  dated  8  Sept.,  1660,  was  proved 
12  Feb.,  1660-1.  By  his  wife  Jane,  who  was  buried  at  St. 
Oiave,  Hart  street,  London,  Mar.  i,  1637-8,  he  had  five 
daughters,  of  whom  three  only  survived.  The  second 
daughter,  Elizabeth  Whicker,  was  baptized  at  St.  Olave, 
Hart  street,  21  Aug.,  1623.  She  first  married  Richard 
Crandley,  Alderman  of  London,  who  was  buried  at  St. 
Olave,  Hart  street,  12  Dec,  1655.  From  his  will  it  is 
evident  that  they  had  no  children.  She  remarried  John 
Morton  at  St.  Olave,  Hart  street,  in  July,  1658,  and  a 
female  child  (unnamed)  was  buried  there  5  July,  1659. 
They  had  also  a  son  John  Whicker  Morton,  who  married 
Elizabeth  Medlicott,  and  died  18  May,  1693,  and  was 
buried  at  Tackley  in  O.xfordshire  :  and  also  a  daughter 
Theodosia,  who  was  her  father's  e.xecutri.x,  and  then  un- 
married. Their  onlv  other  daughter  was  Elizabeth,  who 
married  John  Diodati."  The  general  coincidence  of  these 
results  of  a  search  in  English  records  respecting  the 
Morton-marriage  of  John  Diodati,  with  the  facts  already 
stated  as  derived  from  William  Diodate's  Bible,  will  not 
fail  to  be  noticed.  But  that  statement  is  further  dupli- 
cated by  what  we  learn  in  England  with  regard  to  the 
children  born  of  this  Morton-marriage,  who  are  there  seen 
to  have  been  three  in  number,  namely,  John,  William 
and  Elizabeth.  John,  son  of  John  and  Elizabeth  Di(i- 
dati,  was  matriculated  at  Oxford,  from  Balliol  College, 
April  6,  1709,  aged  16  (he  was  therefore  b(jrn  about  1693); 
and  crraduated  Bachelor  of  Arts  and  >L'ister  of  Arts,  in 
course,  and  afterwards  Bachelor  of  Medicine  and  Doctor 


Mr.  Williain  Diodatc  and  his  Italian  Ancestry.  32 

of  Medicine.  He  became  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  College 
of  Physicians  of  London  June  25,  1724,  and  Censor  in 
1726-7;  and  died  May  23,  1727,  unmarried.  His  will, 
dated  May  19,  and  proved  July  27,  1727,  left  his  whole 
estate,  both  real  and  personal,  with  the  exception  of  a 
single  legacy  of  ^50,  to  his  sister  Elizabeth,  then  un- 
married—coinciding with  the  tradition  that  William 
Diodate,  on  returning  to  England  after  the  death  of  his 
brother  John,  when  his  father  also  had  died,  found  himself 
disinherited.  This  sister  afterwards  married  a  gentleman 
of  the  name  of  Scarlett — probably  Anthony  S.,  whose  will, 
dated  May  8,  1750,  and  proved  March  1,  1757,  by  his  relict 
Elizabeth,  left  his  entire  estate  to  her,  "as  a  testimony  of 
the  great  love  and  most  tender  affection  which  "  he  had 
"  for  the  best  of  wives."  She  died  in  1768,  her  will  having 
been  proved  April  13  of  that  year,  with  a  codicil  which 
she  added  Feb.  22  of  the  same  year,  in  which  the  principal 
legacies  are  to  "the  children  of"  her  "niece  Elizabeth 
Johnson  deceased,  late  wife  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Stephen 
Johnson  of  Lime,  in  Connecticut  in  New  England." 
This  record  brings  us  back  to  our  subject,  William 
Diodate,  the  only  other  child  of  John  Diodati  by  his 
Morton-marriage,  whose  daughter,  as  appears  from  his 
will  in  the  New  Haven  records,  was  that  Elizabeth 
Johnson,  thus  named  in  the  will  of  her  aunt  Scarlett. 


It  only  remains  to  say  that  the  son-in-law  of  William 
Diodate,  Stephen  Johnson,  named  in  his  will,  a  son  of 
Nathaniel  Johnson,  Esq.,  of  Newark,  New  Jersey,  by  his 
wile  Sarah  Ogden,  was  not  unworthy  to  transmit  the  accu- 
mulated honors  of  the  Diodati  race  to  his  descendants  ; 
for,  beside  being  an  honored  pastor,  for  forty  years,  over  a 


Mr.  Williaiii  Diodaic  and  his  Italian  Ancestry.  33 

single  church,  he  was  an  eminent  patriot — perhaps  contrib- 
uting as  much  as  any  other  one  person  to  bring  on  the 
Revolution,  by  his  strong  and  impassioned  articles  in 
opposition  to  the  stamp-act,  published  in  New  London 
papers  of  the  day,  through  the  agency  of  his  parishioner 
and  intimate  friend  and  counsellor  John  McCurdv,  ten 
years  before  the  actual  breaking  out  of  the  war  ;  which  led 
to  the  banding  together  of  the  "Sons  of  Liberty"  in  organ- 
ized associati(jn,  first  in  Connecticut  and  afterwards  in 
other  colonies  ;  and  on  the  22d  of  May,  1775,  when  the  con- 
flict of  war  had  begun,  he  asked  leave  of  absence  from  his 
people  in  order  to  accept  the  appointment  of  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  colony  to  be  chaplain  to  the  regiment  of 
Col.  Parsons,  which  was  afterwards  present  at  the  battle 
of  Bunker  Hill.  The  historian  Bancroft  sa3's:  "  Of  that 
venerable  band  who  nursed  the  flame  of  piety  and  civil 
freedom,  none  did  better  service  than  the  American-born 
Stephen  Johnson,  the  sincere  and  fervid  pastor  of  the 
First  Church  of  Lyme.""  His  descendants,  also,  proved 
worthy  of  their  inheritance  :  Diodate  Johnson,  his  son, 
a  young  clergyman  cut  off  in  his  twent3--eighth  year, 
was  "  eminent  for  genius,  learning  and  piety  ;"  and  his 
daughter  Sarah,  who  became  the  wife  of  John  Griswold, 
son  of  the  first  Governor  Griswold  of  Connecticut 
by  his  wife  Ursula  Wolcott,  handed  down  the  precious 
legacy  of  "  blood  that  tells,"  in  cultured  manners,  warm 
affections,  noble  aspirations,  and  quick  intelligence,  betok- 
ening, in  the  case  of  some  of  the  generations  which  have 
succeeded,  in  no  doubtful  manner,  the  hereditar}-  influ- 
ence of  old  Italian  genius  and  temperament. 


NOTES. 


'  Proceedings  of  the  City  of  New  Haven  in  the  Removal  of  Monuments 
from  its  Ancient  Burying  Ground,  etc..  New  Haven.  1822,  p.  26. 

'The  inscription  on  her  gravestone  reads  as  follows:  "  In  memory  of  Mrs. 
Sarah  Diodate,  relict  of  Mr.  William  Diodate,  who  departed  this  life  the  25th 
April,  1764,  in  the  75th  year  of  her  age." 

^  In  1833  this  piece  of  plate  was  melted  up,  with  others,  to  make  new  cups, 
on  one  of  which  Mrs.  Diodate's  gift  is  recorded  as  follows,  in  connection 
with  that  of  another:  "Presented  to  the  First  Church  in  New  Haven  by 
Frances  Brown,  Rev.  Mr.  Noyes  being  pastor.  And  By  Mrs.  Sarah  Diodate 
in  1762.     Made  anew  in  1833." 

*  Rev.  .Andrew  Le  Mercier  came  to  this  country  in  1715,  and  became  the 
pastor  of  a  French  Protestant  church  in  Boston.  "In  1732  he  published  a 
minute  and  interesting  history  of  the  Geneva  Church,  in  five  books,  l2mo., 
200  pages  ;  also,  in  the  same  volume,  '  .A  Geographical  and  Political  Account 
of  the  Republick  of  Geneva,'  76  pages,"  See  New  Engl.  Hist,  and  Geneal. 
Register,  xiii.  315-24. 

'  The  record  stands  thus:  "William  Diodate's  Book,  August  24,  1728. 
The  owners  of  this  Bible  have  been  :  i.  Mr.  John  Wicker  ;  2.  Alderman 
Cranne  of  London,  who  married  his  only  child  ;  3.  John  Morton,  Esquire, 
her  second  husband  ;  4.  Mr.  John  Diodate,  who  married  his  eldest  daughter  ; 
5.  John  Diodate,  M.  D.,  his  eldest  son;  6.  Elizabeth  Diodate,  his  sister,  and 
b)' her  given  7.  to  William  Diodate,  her  brother.  Aug.  y'  24,  1728,  and  by 
him  given  to  his  dear  and  only  child  [so  far  in  W.  D.'s  handwriting]  ;  8. 
Elizabeth  Diodate,  who  was  married  July  26,  1744,  to  Mr.  Stephen  Johnston 
of  Newark  in  Est  Jersie,  etc.  etc." 

'  A  genealogical  chart  of  all  the  ramifications  of  the  family,  of  which  we  are 
informed,  beginning  with  Cornelio,  is  appended  to  this  paper.  In  one  of  the 
family-documents,  entitled   "  Notes  G^nealogiques  tirees  des  Archives  de  M. 


Notes.  35 

Rilliet  Neckar,  Commissaire  General,"  three  other  names  are  found  before 
that  of  Arrigo  in  our  chart,  namely:  Ugolino,  d.  at  Lucca  1150;  Cristoforo, 
d.  at  L.  Iig4  ;  Uberto,  d.  at  L.  1234  ;  and  Jacopo — who  is  called  "  Dominus 
de  Barga" — d.  at  L.  1304  ;  while  the  name  of  Cornelio  is  omitted,  apparently 
by  accident.  But  we  learn,  by  a  letter  from  Mr.  Theodore  Diodati  of  Geneva, 
that  his  grandfather  always  considered  the  Diodatis  of  Barga  as  forming  a 
separate  branch  ;  and  the  dates  above  given  seem  not  likely  to  belong  to  suc- 
cessive generations :  so  that  we  have  here,  probably,  an  ill-considered  at- 
tempt to  trace  the  origin  of  the  family  from  a  still  higher  antiquity.  If 
Schotel  (pp.  12-13)  is  right  in  his  understanding  of  Baronius,  one  of  the 
name  held  the  papal  chair  from  614  to  617,  as  the  successor  of  Boniface 
4th.  For  completeness,  we  may  add  that  Schotel  (p.  12)  refers  to  "  L'^tat  de 
Provence,  dans  sa  noblesse,"  Paris,  1693,  iii.  28  ;  Caesar  Nostradamus,  "  His- 
toire  de  Provence,"  Lion,  1614,  p.  697;  and  Mich.  Baudier,  "Hist,  du 
Marechal  de  Toiras,"  Paris,  1644,  as  showing  that  some  have  believed  the 
Diodatis  to  be  not  originally  Italian,  but  of  French  extraction.  But  the  last 
of  these  references — which  is  the  only  one  we  have  been  able  to  follow  up — 
has  given  us  nothing  pertinent  to  the  subject ;  nor  do  Schotel's  quotations, 
on  pp.  97-S,  from  the  first  two  of  the  works  referred  to,  seem  to  support  his 
statement.  Coreglia  and  Barga  are  both  small  castle-towns,  with  dependent 
territories,  on  the  torrent-worn  declivity  of  the  Appenines,  four  miles  (Italian) 
apart,  and  about  twenty  miles  north  of  Lucca  :  s.  Repetti,  Dizion.  Geogr. 
Fisico  Storico  della  Toscana,  i.  273  ff.,  796  ff". 

All  the  names  and  dates  of  our  chart  have  the  authority  of  family-records, 
but  there  is  reason  to  fear  that  the  order  of  names  belonging  to  a  single  gen- 
eration may  not,  in  all  cases,  have  been  correctly  given,  though  we  have 
aimed  at  the  utmost  precision  possible. 

'  Histoire  des  Republiques  Italiennes  du  Moyen  Age,  iv.  164. 

'  Hist.  d.  Republ.  Ital.,  xii.  4  ff. 

'De  Bude,  p.  10. 

'"  In  J.  B.  Rietstap's  Armorial  General,  Gonda,  1S61.  we  find  the  following  : 
"  Deodati — Lucques,  Suisse,  Neerl.  Part:  au  i  de  gu.  un  lion  d'or;  au  2  fasce 
d'or  et  de  gu.;  C  :  le  lion,  iss.;  D:  Deus  dedit."  A  family-document  preserved 
at  Geneva  informs  us  with  respect  to  Giulio  Diodati,  grandson  of  a  brother 
of  that  Michele  who  entertained  the  Emperor  Charles  in  his  palace,  that 
"  L'Empereur  [Ferdinand  2d]  pour  reconnoitre  les  grands  et  importants 
services  qu'il  lui  avait  rendus,  le  fit  comte,  et  que,  si'l  ne  se  marioit  pas,  le 
litre  passeroit  a  ses  collateraux,  et  permit  Jl  la  famille  d'augmenter  leurs 
armes  d'une  double  aigle  Imp^riale" — forming,  accordingly,  the  background 
and  crest  in  a  blazon  of  the  Diodati  arms  which  is  attached   to  a  Patent  of 


Notes.  36 

Joseph  2ci,  presently  to  be  mentioned.  An  older  coat,  identical  with  Rietstap's 
description,  except  that  the  left  of  the  shield,  in  heraldic  language,  is  barry  of 
six  pieces,  instead  of  fesse  or  and  gules,  is  still  to  be  seen,  in  stone,  over 
the  door  of  a  palace  in  Lucca,  now  known  as  the  Orsetti,  which  must,  there- 
fore, have  been  the  old  home  of  the  family  ;  and  the  point  of  difference  here 
indicated  may  show,  perhaps,  what  was  the  quartering  granted  by  Charles  5th. 
The  family  in  Geneva,  at  the  present  time,  use  the  arms  which  are  engraved 
for  our  frontispiece — substantially  the  same  with  the  blazon  in  the  Patent 
of  Joseph  2d,  though  slightly  diifering  from  that  in  the  execution  of  details, 
and  believed  by  the  family  to  be  so  far  more  correct :  the  terms  of  the  grant 
to  Giulio  Diodati  by  Ferdinand  2d  would  seem  to  authorize  any  branch  of  the 
family  to  use  the  imperial  double  eagle  as  part  of  their  arms. 

"  Schotel,  p.  125. 

'^  De  Bude,  p.  16  ;  and  Schotel,  p.  7.  The  former  erroneously  gives  Cal- 
andrini  as  the  maiden-name  of  the  wife  of  this  Nicolo. 

'^Schotel  (p.  104)  gives  this  inscription  as  follows: 

"  D.  O.  M. 
Et  memoriae  sterns  Julii  Diodati  Patricii  Lucensis  qui  bellicae  gloriae  natus 
Ferdinando  ii.  Imperatore  per  omnes  militiae  gradus  inter  summos  Copiarum 
Praefectos  adscitus  Luzenensi  praelio  in  quo  Gustavus  Suecise  Rex  interfec- 
tus  est  dextero  lateri  prsefuit  fideque  ac  virtute  singulari  claras  urbes  Lin- 
cium  et  Ratisbonam  ex  hostibus  recepit. 

Sexies  ferreA  glande  ictus  semel  coelesti  prodigio  servatus  in  parvo  Car- 
melitarum  habitu  globi  impetu  fracto  demum  ad  recipiendam  Moguntiam 
a  Caesare  missus    ictu    parvi   tormenti  decessit. 

In  ipso  victoriae  suae  spectaculo  gentis  patriae  militiae  decus  anno  1635  26 
[ulii  xtatis  xli. 

Octavius  una  cum  fratre  Johanne  Equite  Hierosolimitano  Venetiarum 
Priore  fratre  amantissimo  cum  lacrymis  poni  supremis  tabulis  jussit.  Nico- 
laus  Deodatus  Octavii  haeres  et  curatores  testamentarii  posuerunt  Anno 
Domini  1671." 

In  the  same  church  is  a  chapel  of  the  Diodatis,  with  the  following  inscrip- 
tion, as  given  by  Schotel  (pp.  104-5); 

"  D.  O.  M. 
Aram  in  honorem  S.  Nicolai  Tolentinati  a  nobili  Deodatorum  familia  erec- 
tam,  in  qui  Hieronimus  Deodatus,  Michaelis  filius,  stipe  monachis  S.  Au- 
gustini  legatft  testamento  per  Jacobum  de  Carolis  excepto  anno  1512,  sa- 
crum alternis  diebus  defunctis  familiae  piaculo  solvendis  fieri  in  perpetuum 
jussit.  Octavius  Deodatus,  Nicolai  filius,  lapideo  opere  ornari,  jussitque  in 
eS  quotidie  sacramenti  hostiam  immolari  suis  Hilariaeque  uxoris  et  Julii  fra- 


Notes.  37 

tris  manibus  expiandis,  nee  non  quotannis  septimo  Calendas  August!  sacrum 
majus  ac  triginta  minora  in  perpetuum  fieri,  fundo  iisdem  monachis  legato, 
qui  onus  susceperunt  Cal.  Martii  1670.  Tabulis  publicis  a  Paulino  de  Car- 
olis  ea  de  re  confectis." 

"  Hisi.  d.  RtJpubl.  Ital.,  xvi.  207  ff.,  220,  274,  2S4  ft'. 

'°  Letter  of  Rev.  L.  W.  Bacon,  dated  Feb.  18,  1875.  A  beautiful  photo- 
graphed copy  of  this  Patent  has  since  been  received  from  Geneva,  through 
Mr.  Bacon's  kindness.  The  substance  of  it  is  that,  in  consideration  of  the 
ancient  nobilitj-  of  the  Diodati  family,  and  its  distinguished  public  services 
and  dignities,  both  in  the  old  Italian  home  and  in  foreign  lands,  as  well  as  of 
the  recognition  of  their  high  position  by  the  King  of  France  in  1719,  and  in 
consideration,  further,  of  high  personal  distinction  and  claims  of  merit  of  a 
certain  John  Diodati,  great-great-great-grandson  of  Pompeio,  grandson  of 
Gabriel,  and  son  of  Abraham,  the  Emperor  confers  a  countship  of  the  em- 
pire with  the  amplest  dignities  and  privileges,  upon  him  and  upon  all  his 
children  and  direct  descendants,  being  legitimate,  of  both  sexes.  It  is  dated 
at  Vienna,  Oct.  4,  1783.  This  John  is  the  same  who  has  been  named  above 
(p.  14)  as  the  last  in  the  line  of  direct  descent  from  Pompeio.  Attached  to 
this  Patent  is  a  blazon  of  the  Diodati  arms,  described  as  follows:  "Ut  autem 
eo  luculentius  de  collatd  hac  Sacri  Romani  Imperii  Comitatis  dignitate  omni 
posteritati  constet,  non  solum  antiqua  nobilitatis  ejus  insignia  clementer  lau- 
damus  et  approbamus,  ac  quatenus  opus  est  de  novo  concedimus,  sed  ea 
quoque  novis  accessionibus  exornata  sequenteni  in  moduni  omni  posthac  tem- 
pore geslanda  ac  ferenda  benigne  elargimur.  Scutum  videlicet  militare  erec- 
tum  aquilae  bicipiti  nigrae  coronatae,  expansis  alis  et  e.xsertis  Unguis  rubeis. 
impositum,  in  duas  partes  aequales  perpendiculariter  sectum,  in  cujus  parte 
dextra  rubeS.  leo  aureus  exserta  linguS  rubed  caudaque  a  tergo  projects  ex- 
trorsum  versus  conspicitur,  sinistra  vero  auro  et  rubeo  colore  in  sex  partes 
aequales  divisa  est :  telamones  ex  ulraque  parte  sunt  leones  aurei  capitibus 
extrorsum  versis.  Unguis  rubeis  exsertis,  caudisque  a  tergo  projectis  ;  et  tan- 
dem in  calce  scuti  sequens  symbolum  Deus  Dedit  in  schedula  inscriptitiS 
Uteris  nigris  legitur ;  prout  haec  omnia  propriis  suis  coloribus  in  medio  hujus 
Nostri  Caesarei  diplomaiis  accuratius  depicta  sunt." 

'*The  Poetical  Works  of  John  Milton,  ed by  David  Masson,  ii.  324. 

"  David  Masson's  Life  of  John  Milton,  ii.  Si,  note. 

"Ibid.,  i.  So. 

"Charles  Symmons's  Prose  Works  of  John  Milton,  vi.  117. 

'»  De  Bude,  pp.  164-5.  Richard  Simon,  on  the  other  hand,  thought  Dio- 
dati's  translation  too  periphrastic,  and  more  definite  on  the  side  of  his  own 


^^otes.  3  8 

theological  opinions  than  the  original  text.  But  Diodati  seems  to  have 
spared  no  labor  to  perfect  his  work  in  successive  editions:  the  younger 
Buxtorf  wrote  of  him  that  his  authority  as  an  interpreter  of  Scripture  had 
great  weight,  inasmuch  as  he  was  chiefly  occupied,  all  his  life,  "  in  examin- 
ando  sensu  textus  sacri,  atque  Bibliis  vertendis:"  s.  Schotel.  p.  2i  ;  and  the 
English  editor  of  his  Annotations,  in  1651,  said  that  "in  polishing  and  per- 
fecting them,  in  several!  editions,  he  hath  laboured  ever  since"  he  first  fin- 
ished them. 

'"  Chalmers'  Biogr.  Diet.,  xii.  107. 

"*  Brandt,  iii.  79. 

''  Brandt,  iii.  Ii5. 

■^''  Brandt,  iii.  253. 

"'  Brandt,  iii.  267. 

'*  Brandt,  iii.  281.  A  cruel  witticism,  even,  is  attributed  to  Diodati,  on  the 
occasion  of  the  execution  of  Barneveldt — that  the  canons  of  Dort  had  been 
the  death  of  him  :  but  such  words  seem  very  unlikely  to  have  come  from 
his  lips. 

"  Masson's  Life  of  Milton,  i.  778. 

*«  Ibid. 

■''  A  grand-daughter  of  the  Francesco  B.  who  conspired  to  liberate  the  re- 
publics of  Tuscany  in  1546,  and  sacrificed  his  life  to  his  patriotism:  s.  Hist, 
d.  Republ.  Ital.,  xvi.  128  ff.,  and  Schotel,  pp.  11-12. 

She  had  a  sister  Renee — so  named  by  the  celebrated  Renee  Duchess 
of  Ferrara,  who  was  her  godmother— who  married,  first,  Cesar  Balbani. 
and,  afterwards,  Theodore  Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  the  grandfather  of  Fran- 
goise  d'Aubigne  Marchioness  de  Maintenon  :  s.  Schotel,  pp.  12,  92.  Jean 
Jacques  Burlamaqui,  author  of  the  well-known  "  Principes  de  la  Loi  Natu- 
relle  et  Politique,"  was  a  cousin  of  the  wife  of  Rev.  John  Diodati,  and 
appears  to  have  married  a  sister  of  his.  The  Burlamaquis  were  "one 
of  those  noble  families  of  Lucca,"  says  Nugent,  the  English  translator 
of  that  work,  "which,  on  their  embracing  the  Protestant  religion,  were 
obliged,  about  two  centuries  ago,  to  take  shelter  in  Geneva:"  between 
them  and  the  Diodatis  there  were  several  intermarriages.  A  touch- 
ingly  simple  narrative  of  dangers  and  escapes,  privations  and  succors,  ex- 
perienced by  the  family  of  Michel  Burlamaqui,  father  of  Madeleine  and  Re- 
nee, in  passing  from  Italy,  by  the  way  of  France,  to  their  final  resting-place 
in  Geneva,  which  was  written  by  Renee  in  Geneva,  is  given  by  Schotel  (pp. 
85-95)  frotn  family-archives.     At  one  time  they  were  sheltered  in  a  palace  of 


Notes.  39 

the  Duchess  of  Ferrara  at  Montargis,  where  Renee  was  born.  Again,  being 
in  Paris  during  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew,  the  very  palace  of  the 
Duke  of  Guise,  through  the  intervention  of  some  Roman  Catholic  relatives, 
became  their  place  of  refuge.  Afterwards,  in  the  house  of  M.  de  Bouillon, 
temptations  to  a  denial  of  their  faith,  by  conformity  to  the  usages  of  the  old 
church,  beset  them  ;  but  from  these,  too,  they  escaped  unscathed.  Finally, 
after  years  of  moving  from  place  to  place,  they  reached  Geneva,  stripped  of 
all  earthly  goods,  but  rich  in  the  treasure  of  a  good  conscience,  and  "ex- 
tremely joyous  and  consoled." 

*  De  Bude,  p.  298.  At  our  request,  through  the  intervention  of  missionary- 
friends,  a  search  has  been  lately  made  for  this  monument,  in  the  English, 
French  and  Dutch  cemeteries  at  Surat,  but  without  success  :  the  climate, 
time  and  neglect  would  seem  to  have  destroyed  all  traces  of  it. 

^'  Hist,  of  the  United  States,  v.  320.  Our  country's  indebtedness  to  Johnson 
in  the  matter  of  resistance  to  the  stamp-act  is  fully  recognized  by  Bancroft, 
as,  for  instance,  in  his  Hist.,  v.  353,  where  he  calls  him  "  the  incomparable 
Stephen  Johnson  of  Lyme  ;"  and  long  ago,  by  Gordon  in  his  Hist,  of  the 
Rise,  Progress  and  Establishment  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States, 
i.  166  ff. 


Adolphe  (n.  1863) 


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